IPv6 Act Now

It seems that there is an increasing level of interest in the topic of IPv4 address exhaustion, so I thought I’ll share a set of answers to the most common questions I’ve been asked on this topic in recent times.

1. What’s the most significant challenge to the Internet today?

What a wonderfully open-ended question! There are so manny challenges that one could identify: improving the level of security on the network, eradicating spam and viruses, improving capacity of the network’s infrastructure, improving the efficiency of high speed data transfer, improving the accuracy of search engines, building more efficient and high capacity data centres, reducing the unit cost of Internet services, to name but a few.

More from IPv6 News…

A new article from RIPE NCC Chief Scientist Daniel Karrenberg examines some interesting IPv6 observations, as seen from his private Internet connection. For the full story, see RIPE Labs…

Yes, you can get by without it, but probably not for long. Adopting the new IPv6 protocols will be a challenge, and there are ways to work around the shortage of IPv4 addresses, such as Network Address Translation, or NAT. So why bother to make the move? Because any workarounds eventually will get in the way of new services and devices, and the rest of the world will pass by those who do not adapt.

“It returns us to the original design of the Internet — any device to address any other device,” said Bill Crowell, former deputy director of the National Security Agency and now a member of BlueCat Networks’ technical advisory board for the federal market.

NAT has extended the life of IPv4 and can add some security by shielding the network from prying eyes on the outside, but it also can interfere with functionality. The isolation imposed on islands of IPv4-only functionality will grow as more services and devices are enabled with the new protocols.

More from Government Computer News…

European Commission funded survey finds 25% of ISPs now offer IPv6 services to consumers

Organizations recognize IPv6 helps them stay ahead of competition but misconceptions around the cost of deployment are delaying adoption

The Number Resource Organization (NRO), the official representative of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) that oversee the allocation of all Internet number resources, today unveils the findings of a global, independent survey into organizations’ IPv6 readiness. Funded by the European Commission and conducted by GNKS Consult and TNO, the study reveals that the majority of organizations are taking steps toward IPv6 deployment, as the IPv4 address pool continues to deplete rapidly.

IP addresses are critical for the operation of the Internet. Every Internet-enabled device needs an IP address to connect to the rest of the network. The biggest threat facing the Internet today is that less than 6% of the current form of IP addresses, IPv4, remains and the pool is likely to be completely depleted next year. This means that organizations need to adopt IPv6, the next-generation addressing protocol. There is a far larger pool of IPv6 addresses, allowing for more devices to connect to the Internet and helping to safeguard the sustainable growth of the Internet.

The survey, which polled over 1,500 organizations from 140 countries, highlights that organizations are increasingly aware of the need to deploy IPv6: approximately 84% already have IPv6 addresses or have considered requesting them from the RIRs. Only 16% of respondents have no plans to deploy IPv6 addresses.

The study also demonstrates that there are some misconceptions around the cost of adopting IPv6. Over half of all respondents noted that the cost of deployment was a major barrier for IPv6 adoption. While organizations might delay investing in IPv6, this may ultimately result in greater costs, with last-minute deployment and poor planning likely to increase the investment required.

Of the 84% of respondents that have requested IPv6 addresses or have considered doing so, three-quarters reported the need to stay ahead of competition as the main reason for IPv6 adoption. Half of these respondents also noted that a lack of available IPv4 space was a major driver for deployment. When asked about issues they had encountered when deploying IPv6:

• 60% cited the lack of vendor support as a major barrier for deployment. However, most of the latest hardware and software support IPv6. The RIRs are strongly urging organizations to check with their suppliers to ensure that the technologies they use are IPv6 compatible.
• 45% reported a struggle to find knowledgeable technical staff to support deployment. However, all five RIRs arrange technical training to facilitate an efficient IPv6 deployment, details of which can be accessed via the NRO website.

58% of all organizations polled were ISPs. It is likely that respondents to this survey are further ahead in IPv6 deployment than ISPs overall, but all organizations should ensure that their ISP offers or plans to offer services over IPv6. Out of the polled ISPs:

• Approximately 60% already offer, or plan to offer within the next year, IPv6 to consumers.
• 70% already offer, or plan to offer within the next year, IPv6 to businesses.
• Only about 10% of polled ISPs have no plans to offer IPv6 to consumers or businesses.

Axel Pawlik, Chairman of the NRO, comments: “It’s great to see that as we move toward complete IPv4 exhaustion, more organizations worldwide are waking up to the need to adopt IPv6 and are sourcing IPv6 addresses from the RIRs.

“Yet there is still a distinct lack of Internet traffic over the next addressing protocol, with not enough ISPs offering IPv6 services and 30% of ISPs saying the proportion of this traffic is less than 0.5%. It’s critical that ISPs now take the next step in the global adoption effort by offering IPv6 services to their customers to help boost traffic over IPv6.”

Per Blixt, Head of Unit in the Information Society and Medias at the European Commission, says: “It’s encouraging to see that so many organizations have made IPv6 adoption their priority. Still, as the Internet becomes increasingly important for global socio-economic development, it’s critical that those who are still sitting on the fence act now on IPv6. Only by ensuring that all organizations adopt IPv6 can we ensure the sustainable growth of the digital economy worldwide.”

This survey is a follow-up to a study conducted in 2009 amongst organizations in Europe, Middle East and parts of Central Asia, as well as Asia Pacific; however this year’s survey polled organizations worldwide.

The full research report is available here.

If you listen to some people, businesses don’t need to worry about the growing shortage of Internet IPv4 addresses. Instead, most “network owners find it more affordable to just make do with the [Internet] addressing scheme they’re already using. This is so, so wrong.

When the Internet began, IPv4’s possible 32-bit 4.3 billion addresses looked like more than enough. Things have changed.

We’re running out of IPv4 addresses, the 32-bit numeric addresses that network devices need to connect to the Internet. All those mobile devices that we love so much like iPhones, tablets, and iPods are gobbling down IPv4 addresses like an elephant does peanuts.

More from ZDnet…

The IPv6 Forum Ready Logo Program Committee releases a new program: the IPv6 Education Certification Logo Program. This program defines and certifies courses, engineers and trainers with Silver & Gold Logo levels and requires IPv6 implementation on the web site of the education program.

A recent survey on IPv6 training and studies at universities and vendors has demonstrated that IPv6 training and courses are way too embryonic to have any critical impact. It is estimated that some 20 million engineers are working on the current Internet worldwide at ISPs, corporate and all other public and private organizations and they will need quality training on IPv6.

More at the IPv6 Forum.

Sometime next year the Internet as we know it will run out of IP addresses. That’s why we have IPv6, but why are so few people using it?

It sounds like another Y2K type scenario doesn’t it? James Spenceley, the CEO of Vocus, says the analogy is closer to when we ran out of phone numbers. We fixed the problem by adding an extra digit. Paul Brooks, principal at Layer10 Consulting, says this time we’re creating enough addresses to give one to each grain of sand in the galaxy. That’s probably enough to be going on with. I talk to them both on Twisted Wire this week, to see what needs to change to make the move to IPv6.

More from Zdnet Australia…

On a whim, I decided to deploy IPv6. And all I can say is: It’s a lot easier than you think. I’m writing down a few notes here from the non-network-engineer’s point of view. This is supposed to be the first from a series of postings about my IPv6 deployment.

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